LANSING – Michigan voters will continue to be able to choose a party’s slate of candidates with a single mark on the ballot following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision not to hear the state’s appeal of a lower court ruling preventing the new law eliminating the straight ticket option from taking effect.
The high court’s decision leaves in place the preliminary injunction issued against the law eliminating straight ticket by U.S. District Judge Gershwin Drain, who held it violated the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution by placing a disproportionate burden on African-American voters and the U.S. Voting Rights Act. Mr. Gershwin will still have to hear the full case and make a decision on the merits, and then that ruling surely will work its way up the judiciary via appeals.
But none of that will occur before today’s deadline for the state to finalize ballots for the November election.
Democrats tend to use the straight ticket option in greater numbers than Republicans, and while the effect of losing it was unknown on races for the U.S. House and Michigan House, Democrats were worried and Republicans hopeful it would aid the GOP. The retention of straight ticket voting will surely help Democrats on the statewide education board races, which they have generally dominated for years.
The decision not to hear the case was 6-2. Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito would have heard the state’s appeal.
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